A85486:147
The right wayThe right vvay
The right way: or A direction for obtaining good success in a weighty enterprise. Set out in a sermon preached on the 12th of September, 1648. before the Lords on a day of humiliation for a blessing on a treaty between His Majesties and the Parliaments commissioners. / By W. Gouge.The right vvay: or A direction for obtaining good successe in a weighty enterprise. Set out in a sermon preached on the 12th of September, 1648. before the Lords on a day of humiliation for a blessing on a treaty between His Majesties and the Parliaments commissioners. / By W. Gouge.
London: printed by A. Miller for Joshua Kirton, 1648London: printed by A. Miller for Ioshua Kirton, 1648
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Every man is nearest to himself: and a mans self is the rule of the love of his neighbour: for thus saith the Law, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self, Mat. 22. 39. I may make from hence such an inference as the Apostle doth from a Bishops ruling his own house, If a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God? 1 Tim. 3. 5. In like manner if a man know not how to seek his own good, how shall he take care for the good of others?
12. From the second sort of Persons, which were their little ones, I further observe, That
12. From the second sort of Persons, which were their littl ones, I further observe, That
Blessing is to be sought for our young children.1
- 1Observ. 12.
Even for such as cannot seek it for themselves. Their welfare is a means of continuing not the world only, but the Church also in the world. We are mortal, and shall not always abide here to serve the Lord. As our fathers, who served God in their generations, are gone, so shall we after a short time: God knows how soon. But by procuring Gods blessing on our little ones, they may grow up, they may know God and serve him in their generation, after we are taken from them. Thus may the eternal God be everlastingly served by mortal men: one generation serving him after another. To sharpen our prayers, and strengthen our faith in craving a blessing for our little ones, we may plead before God that which God himself says of the children of the Israelites, that they were born to him, and were his children,